Harry Potter- Quidditch World Cup

While Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is a decent first effort at simulating the chosen sport of wizards, it falls short of its promise primarily because of sluggish controls.The games based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise have always been great commercial successes, riding the coattails of the wildly popular books. The games' publisher, Electronic Arts, has boldly attempted to branch out from the action adventure games by creating a "sports" game based on the fictional sport of quidditch, which is described in the various Harry Potter books and depicted in the films. While Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is a decent first effort at simulating the chosen sport of wizards, it falls short of its promise primarily because of sluggish controls and shallow gameplay.

Three players on a team take the "chaser" position; their role is similar to that of a forward on a soccer or hockey squad. Their primary responsibility is to score goals through the hoops using the quaffle, which is one of the balls in play. Each goal is worth 10 points. Two other players on each team are the "beaters," and their role has no equivalent in any other sport. The beaters are armed with small bats, which they use to swat at two magically propelled balls, called bludgers. The bludgers will randomly attack the players on the pitch--the beaters' duty is to protect their own players from the bludgers while using their bats to try to encourage the bludgers to go after the other team. One player is the "keeper," and as the name suggests, the keeper's job is to play goalie near the vertical hoops and prevent any goals. Finally, the seventh player on each team plays as the "seeker." The seeker's job is to keep an eye out for a tiny and elusive ball called the golden snitch. Like the bludgers, the snitch is magically self-propelled. A match of quidditch continues until the golden snitch is caught; the seeker who snatches it earns 150 points for his or her team.

Quidditch World Cup is a pretty decent first effort at simulating the fictional sport of quidditch. However, the developers have definitely left plenty of room for improvement. With tighter controls and a little bit more effort put into deeper, more strategic gameplay, Quidditch World Cup might have turned out to be a very good game. As it stands, the game will primarily appeal to hardcore Harry Potter fans who are willing to overlook the flaws.